Friday, September 16, 2011

In the Arms of the Marquess

posted by NancyKatherine Ashe's latest debut, Swept Away by a Kiss, was a Romantic Times Top Pick and a nominee for Best First Historical Romance in the Reviewers Choice Best Book Awards. In the Arms of A Marquess, her latest release, received 4.5 stars from Romantic Times along with a K.I.S.S. award for its hero, Lord Ben Dorée.

Welcome back, Katharine!

The description of In the Arms of a Marquess on your website implies Ben and Octavia, the hero and heroine, have a past. Please tell us about it.

Ben and Octavia do indeed have a past together — a past in which their young, passionate, and forbidden love ended in heartbreak. I can’t say much more without giving spoilers, but most assuredly neither of them forgot that love affair… or ever truly believed it was over.

What's the biggest obstacle for each of them when they're reunited?

Both of them play roles now that don’t suit their souls. Lord Ben Doreé, a marquess but also lord of an empire of sorts — a secret organization that spreads its net far beyond England — holds enormous responsibility over many people. His duties to this empire rule him, though all he wishes is to escape it in the company of the girl he once loved.

Miss Octavia Pierce is a naturally adventuresome lady with a frank, honest approach to society. But since her heartbreak years earlier she has learned to withhold her emotions and not to fully trust. The greatest obstacles they face in reuniting are their own wounded hearts. Their fierce desire for one another, not to mention villains plotting against them, makes healing those hearts a tumultuous matter indeed.

The book is partially set in India. Do you think more exotic settings are coming back to the romance genre?

The book takes place in England, although there are a few scenes — memories from the past — set in India where Ben and Octavia first met.

I don’t know about the romance genre as a whole embracing more unusual settings these days. Perhaps, and I hope! (I’m particularly excited about Anna Randol’s upcoming debut set in Constantinople.) But I certainly like to take advantage of Britain’s vast, rich and exciting empire in writing my books. I adore throwing my heroes and heroines into each other’s arms in London ballrooms as much as locking them in embraces aboard ship decks and beneath palm trees.

It’s such fun contrasting the rules and regulations of propriety in Regency society with the vital danger and adventure of the rest of the world that society depended upon for its wealth. And honestly, I just can’t get enough of a hero who is a highly cultured gentleman in one role and a man of action in his other role. The Scarlett Pimpernel will remain one of my favorite heroes of all time. I love heroes with secret identities, and the complexity and richness of the British Empire during this era just begs me to write them.

Did you have to do a lot of research?

I’ve been researching sea travel, piracy, smuggling and mercantile business in the Georgian through Victorian eras for over a decade. I’ve long adored the history of India in particular, especially under British rule. For this book I began with what I already knew as a starting point to develop the plot broadly, then I interviewed my university colleagues who are scholars of India and British India as to the best direction for my research, then after I researched and wrote the book I checked the details with them. I loved every bit of the reading I did for this story, and I’m very fortunate to have experts in the field amongst my family and friends.

Would you like to share an excerpt?

This is a bit of a scene that happens shortly after Ben and Octavia meet again in England after seven years apart.

Ben pushed to his feet in the gin-soaked pub. His clogged head spun.

Styles laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take you to Hauterive’s. Why you came in here when the company there would welcome you, I haven’t the slightest.”

“No. I’m for home.” He started toward the door.

“You disappeared from Lady Ashford’s party so swiftly I hadn’t an idea of it until you were gone. If I’d have known you were heading here I would have dissuaded you.”

“Couldn’t have.” Ben pushed through the lollers at the tavern’s entry and headed toward the mews down the alley with bleary eyes but hound-like precision. If he hadn’t trekked this path hundreds of times in his university days, he would be lost now. Lost in London’s hells and lost in confounded memories, neither of which locations he particularly wished to be.

“Who was that girl you were dancing with, the one that looked like an Irish Athena, all sublime figure and eyes of soft steel?”

Ben blinked to shut out the image of Octavia’s body wrapped in the shimmering gown, her soft lips, pinkened cheeks, and the sensation of her trembling fingers within his. But behind his lids the image was even stronger, and his hand still felt hot where hers had lain.

“Good God, Walker,” he grunted, “you and Constance would make a perfect pair, both of you curious as a couple of magpies.”

“Lady Constance asked about the girl too? Is she jealous?”

“Only of your paramours.”

“Then the lady at Ashford’s is a paramour?”

Ben shook his head, his stomach rolling. “Not mine.” Not any longer.

He moved across the street in unsteady strides.

But why not? No one controlled his destiny now. His life was his own. Why not seduce a beautiful, deceitful woman, a woman whose flavor yet remained upon his tongue? Why not take pleasure where he wished?

Because he could not then and still could not believe in her deceit, although he had tried to convince himself of it again and again. To absolve himself of guilt.

He stumbled into the stable and pressed his face into his horse’s satiny neck. Taking to the bottle tonight had been a mistake. He needed clarity. A pitcher of icy water over his head would do it, just as her smile had earlier, so brief it seemed she didn’t even know she smiled, washing his vision clear for an instant as it always had…

An enticing peek, thanks!

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51 comments:

Well it has been very warm here today so I think relaxing with some Tim Tams and a good book is the way to go.

KatharineI loved Swept Away with a Kiss such a great read and this new one is on my wish list already I can't wait to read it. I love Regency stories that include countries other than England I do love to travel this way :)

One of my great couples with a past is Keiren Krammer's Harry and Molly from When Harry Met Molly loved this couple and the story. I am thinking that one of my unconventional Heroines is Verity from Anna Campbell's CTC. I don't think I have a favourite setting for a romance I like to see lots of the world this way LOL so I am happy with any setting as long as there is a HEA.

Thanks Nancy for inviting Katharin along today. Katharine it must be wonderful to have one of your books as part of the K.I.S.S and Teal programme a great way to raise funds for a very worthy cause.

Hi Katharine, welcome to the lair! Thanks for hosting Katharine, Nancy. In the Arms of a Marquess sounds like a great read.

I always enjoy lovers reunited. One of my faves is a Mary Jo Putney one and I'll get the name wrong but it was one of the silk books where the estranged husband and wife meet again where she is a chieftan in the middle east somewhere. Powerful stuff!

congrats on the bird, Helen! Wonder if he is sporting some new platform shoes after helping Fo clean out her cupboard yesterday:)

Christina, I think his platform shoes are very becoming. And he balances on them MUCH better than I ever did. I must say that 70s flannelette shirt leaves something to be desired, though. And he's started asking for a panel van to go with it!

Katharine~I love that part of your story takes place in India. Gaelen Foley had a little bit of India in her Knight and Spice series and that really interested me. I am very eager to read your book now. There are so many books that feature couples who were separted by events/deceipt by others. I could not pick just one. Settings wise, I love England and Scotland, but I love lesser used areas too, such as Ireland, India, South America, etc.

Two of my favorite reunited couples is Rafe and Margot in Petals of the Storm by Mary Jo Putney and also Kat Martin's The Handmaiden's Necklace. For me it doesn't matter where it takes place as long as the plot of the story draws me to it. I have never decided not to read a book because of the location it takes place.

One of my favorite couples reunited after a painful past would be Meredith Bancroft and Matthew Farrell in Judith McNaught's Paradise. This was a couple torn by misunderstandings and a controlling domineering father. But like Ben and Tavy, they never forgot each other, and going along on their journey as they moved past their painful history and move forward to a wonderful future in paradise was lovely. I also liked Eloisa's An Affair Before Christmas when Poppy and Fletcher had to work through their problems in the bedroom to get their relationship and marriage back on track. More specifically, Poppy had to stop letting her horrid mother interfere with her life and marriage!

An unconventional heroine to me is someone who stays true to who she is and doesn't allow societal restrictions stop her. I loved Amanda in Lisa Kleypas's Suddenly You because not only did she end up marrying a younger man (Egads!) she also ends up the editor of a major influential literary magazine. Go Amanda! :)

Reunited lovers is my favorite trope in romance, and so I find it difficult to choose one favorite. Mary Jo Putney's Silk and Secrets is on my list of favorites too, Christine. Eloisa James's story of Jemma and Elijah kept me enthralled for five books through their HEA in This Duchess of Mine. Another favorite is Kathleen Gilles Seidel's Till the Stars Fall, which I've reread more times than I can count.

Jessica Trent from Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels is my all-time favorite unconventional heroine. I'm open to all kinds of settings so long as they are more than painted backdrops.

Yes, he does tend to meander around Oz once he gets down there, doesn't he? The search for Tim Tams goes on!

Hello, Katharine!

Loved Swept Away by a Kiss !! And I have In the Arms of Marquess on the TBR tower as we speak. In fact I have ALL of the K.I.S.S. and Teal books that are currently out on my TBR tower. Such a worthwhile cause! Tessa Dare gave me one of the armbands in New York and I have worn it ever since. It has helped to get the conversation started at work, and as most of the people with whom I work are women it's definitely helped to get the message out there. AND it has helped to sell some books. (I work at Walmart and I've pointed out the K&T books on the shelves.)

I am an old stick in the mud when it comes to locations. I prefer my historical romances to take place in the UK as I consider it my second home. BUT !! A well-told tale that catches from the start definitely makes me forget so much about the location and concentrate on the romance. Which is the point, of course!

Janga, I also love stories of reunited lovers. Till the Stars Fall was my introduction to Kathleen Gilles Seidel, and it remains on my keeper shelf. I also loved the one that came after that and was set on a Regency soap opera, Again.

Thank you, Janga! I'm with you on the no "painted backdrops" settings. When I'm reading I love to feel immersed in a setting -- to feel and smell it and taste it -- even if it's just a typical Regency ballroom.

Hi, Beth. Thanks for your kind welcome. :) Sweet Home Alabama was really terrific. I loved it that he didn't tell her about what he'd done and become, and that she had to discover it the way she did. He was a wonderful hero.

Hi, Louisa. Thanks so much for supporting the K.I.S.S. and Teal campaign as you've been doing! It's exciting how many women are learning about this and fortifying and protecting themselves with information. Yay!

That is really hard to choose. That is my favorite trope to read so I always love those couples. One of the first couples that come to mine are Gigi and Camden from Sherry Thomas' Private Arrangements.

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Donna MacMeans, Trish Milburn, and Nancy Northcott will all be in Atlanta for the Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Decatur, Georgia September 30 through October 2nd. If you're in the area, stop by for the booksigning. We'd love to see you.

Redeeming the Rogue by Donna MacMeans received a 4.5 star TOP PICK! review from Romantic Times Magazine.

Living in Color by Trish Milburn is now available on Kindle, Smashwords and at barnesandnoble.com for the Nook.